When the TV Guide sits down with The Brokenwood Mysteries stars Fern Sutherland and Neill Rea, it is in a location that their characters would usually avoid.

It is difficult to imagine Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd and Detective Kristin Sims sipping coffee at an inner-city Auckland cafe – they are more often out in the countryside around the small town of Brokenwood, getting their hands dirty and exposing the darkest secrets of the town's inhabitants.

Rea and Sutherland have just wrapped filming of the crime drama's second season, which starts on Prime this week, and provides the detective duo with another four murders to solve.